I was recently told by a friend that one of his friend's wife found information that said the Purina Equine Jr causes arthritis in the horses when they get older because it causes their bones to knit before they are supposed to. This doesn't make sense to be for two reasons. 1. The bones of a foal are not going to knit before they are meant to, and if the feed made the bones knit sooner it would stunt their growth; and 2. Arthritis is causes by years of use, not by bones knitting too soon.

I have searched the web over to try to find what I was told she found, and found nothing even similar. Has anyone else ever heard this or anything like it?

waresbear

01-26-2013 02:01 PM

I heard never heard of a horse feed of any brand believed to cause arthritis. Be interested to hear anyone else has.Posted via Mobile Device

Skyis4ever

01-26-2013 02:14 PM

Perhaps they are more referring to if the horse grows too fast it will have joint problems, one of which could be arthritis. I know that vets often warn about that with large dogs. My grandmother's golden retriever was the size of a two year old dog by the time he was six months old and had to have surgery on both hips (they did everything they could to prevent this from happening but to no avail). He has had joint problems, more specifically arthritis, since he was very young because of this.
Perhaps this problem could happen with young horses as well? It makes me feel like it is excessive quantities of feed designed for young horses than it is the brand of feed itself. Don't quote me on anything lol, I'm just making a guess.

DancingArabian

01-26-2013 03:19 PM

I don't think a food can cause arthritis but I think incorrect nutrition can encourage it along.Posted via Mobile Device

smrobs

01-26-2013 09:14 PM

IME, it's not the feed itself, but rather how it's used that tends to cause arthritis.

The person who's horse supposedly ended up with arthritis, was it by chance a halter horse?

I've seen many halter horses that suffered early onset arthritis from a combination of being beefed up at such a young age and the fitting schedule that overworks immature bodies.

PaintedFury

01-27-2013 12:08 AM

I don't know that this person actually knows it first hand. Supposedly it was something that she found researching feed. This is kinda hard to explain. It is the wife of my best male friend's friend. Does that make sense? She supposedly researches any feed that they feed their herd, and this is what she found on Purina Equine Jr. It didn't sound right to me, so I started searching for something that supported either her or me. I can't find anything that supports her on the web, but it is impossible to search the entire web; so I figured I would ask here and see if anyone else had heard of it or seen it. I guess the curiosity just got the best of me, and I wanted to know for sure.

Endiku

01-27-2013 12:14 AM

Geez I hope not...I'm feeding it to our severely neglected TB filly! O_o I really doubt a feed would do that though, if fed correctly.

walkinthewalk

01-27-2013 07:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PaintedFury
(Post 1864141)

I don't know that this person actually knows it first hand. Supposedly it was something that she found researching feed. This is kinda hard to explain. It is the wife of my best male friend's friend. Does that make sense? She supposedly researches any feed that they feed their herd, and this is what she found on Purina Equine Jr. It didn't sound right to me, so I started searching for something that supported either her or me. I can't find anything that supports her on the web, but it is impossible to search the entire web; so I figured I would ask here and see if anyone else had heard of it or seen it. I guess the curiosity just got the best of me, and I wanted to know for sure.

Much as I am willing to blame Purina feeds for a few things in this life, causing arthritis is not one of them.

Ditto "smrobs" regarding HOW the horse is being fed.

If I were you, I would hold the Wife of My Best Male Friend's Friend feet to the fire and ask to see her research proof.

I looked up Purina Equine Jr. and it's only a little over 14% protein. Soy is the protein source in 99.9% of horse feeds, supplements, ration balancers.

If a horse already has arthritis issues, sometimes a high protein % MIGHT aggravate that arthritis because of the high amount of soy it takes to reach that high percentage.

Tell "That Woman" you want to see what she discovered. If she produces something, regardless of whether it's credible or not, try and get the link because the rest of us are dieing to read it, too:D